The Lucasville Uprising was a rebellion against oppressive and racist policies at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, OH. Nine inmates and one guard died during the uprising in April of 1993. Today, many people are serving time or condemned to death by the state of Ohio in relation to the uprising. We demand amnesty for all of these inmates. The conditions at SOCF were (and still are) intolerable and unconscionable.

Monday, May 22, 2017

Siddique Abdullah Hasan's phone access renewed.

Siddique Abdullah Hasan called a number of his supporters this morning. He's doing well and is excited to have access to one of his most useful organizing tools restored after a 90 day restriction.

The ODRC took away phone access from Hasan and Jason Robb without adequate due process because they claimed the prisoners were paid to appear on the Netflix documentary series Captives. The prisoners responded with hunger strikes that lasted until they were moved to the infirmary for weight loss and dehydration.

The death sentenced survivors of the Lucasville Uprising fought for years to establish and maintain this vital link to the outside world, and Hasan has consistently used it to expand his reach and advocacy for himself and other prisoners not only in the supermax prison he's been confined to since it was built, but across the United States.

The Ohio prison system has tried many ways to take it away from him. They restrict him for talking to journalists and documentary film makers, they fabricate patently false and islamophobic accusations against him, and they consistently violate the equal protection clause of the constitution by denying him and other Lucasville survivors official access to the many journalists who have requested interviews with him.

Hasan and others are plaintiffs in a civil rights lawsuit alleging this violation. He and other plaintiffs have a visit with the legal team today. We will post updates about this lawsuit as they develop. Here's video of a Free Ohio Movement event in Toledo Ohio from March, where you can learn more about Hasan's struggle and anti-prison organizing in Ohio.

Hasan is a member of both the Free Ohio Movement and IWOC (The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World). If you would like to congratulate him on the restored access, thank him for all his years in the struggle, or schedule a phone call with him, you can write a letter to the below address.